Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Doctor Who or Meet the Robinsons. I watched MtR a few Sundays ago and noticed the connecting link between DW and MtR. It should be rather obvious what that is. :P
"Clara Oswald, I am over one-thousand-years-old. I have traveled to thousands of worlds, meandered through hundreds of cities and forts and space-ships, encountered thousands of people, experienced so many cultures it's impossible to count, eaten about a billion different things, and this is the best cuppa of tea I've had in all those years," the Doctor said with a warm smile.
He and Clara were taking a break from escaping a centuries-old rivalry's clutches for a moment in the TARDIS's console room, leaning against her guardrails and enjoying a delicious cup of English breakfast.
Clara cocked her head, her dark brown hair all leaning toward one side, and considered her incredibly old but incredibly young Doctor's face. "That's an exaggeration," she said crisply.
"Is not! I'm not lying!" The Doctor said banteringly, taking another delicious sip.
"Rule number one: the Doctor lies, and you are. I know it," Clara said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, yes, I give in to using flattery every once in a great, great, GREAT while, to get my way, but I am being genuine and honest and nice right now, Clara," the Doctor said, walking his stupid drunken steps over to her. It was the end of a nice long day of avoiding stepping in quick lava sand in the deep jungles of Gagloo on the eighteenth continent of Germoane. Frankly, the Doctor was feeling his age (not quite the entire brunt of it, but a lot) and somewhat tired. Clara, having packed an overnight bag, had proved herself a true Brit by bringing out the tea kettle she'd brought, and had unwittingly improved the Doctor's life tenfold. He settled next to his newest, latest, and most uncharmable companion yet (excepting Tegan) and hoped she believed him.
"No, I really think you're trying to pull one over my eyes," Clara said, not taking his bite. She sipped and said, "Eaten over a billion things?" She poked his thin giraffe tummy. "What kind of Time Lord metabolism do you have? Seriously?"
The Doctor's non-existent eyebrows lowered and he said, "I was complimenting your tea, Clara. Yes, yes, of course a billion things is an exaggeration, a big one, but I'm not lying about your tea!"
"Oh, I know. I make a damn good tea, if I may say so," Clara said, giving her Doctor a sly side look while she finished her cuppa.
The Doctor wrinkled his nose and muttered, "It's not that good of a tea."
"Now you're lying," Clara said mischievously.
Before the Doctor could stumble over his own words as he tried to think of a good comeback, the TARDIS threw her two occupants against the guardrails. The Doctor stumbled over his long legs and assisted Clara, who'd been thrown against the guardrail, facing it, and now would have a severe bruise across her waist.
"Whoa! Whoa!" the Doctor said as Clara became standing up, her two hands tight around the railing.
"Doctor! What is happening?" Clara cried out as the TARDIS began to spin around rapidly, jarring to the left and right and up and down every millisecond. Clara's words echoed across the console room, along with the sparks flying from the console and the spinning of the Gallifreyan circles. The entire room was like a tiny, distorted, disoriented planet, its rotation off and its actions violent and unpredictable.
The Doctor gave himself a magnificent leap to the console, sliding along the slick floor before catching on a lever. He hooked himself to the screen showing the outside of their blind path through outer space and caught sight of a force. He toggled another switch and said, "The TARDIS is picking up readings of a force; its pull is disorienting her! C'mon, girl!"
Clara slid carefully around the guardrail, trying to get nearer and nearer to her weirdo friend. "What is the force made of? Something strong, obviously, to pull the ol' girl out of her suspended state. Oh, ow!" and Clara fell on her bum and silently reached back for the guardrail again, hurrying to pull herself back into a standing position.
"It's like a time vortex, only it's not as strong or made of the same material," the Doctor said, scrambling to keep upright.
"So it's not like it at all, really?" Clara said, as the TARDIS's weight shifted to the back and she struggled to keep her center of gravity from falling.
"Yes, it is! Oh, you're so human," the Doctor said, wringing his hands a split second before he held tightly to a lever and a handle on the console to keep from landing halfway across the room.
"Oh, you're so Time Lord," Clara bantered back just as quickly. She caught on just as quick, saying, standing still for a moment, "You mean it's got stuff that makes you go back and forth in time?"
"Yes! Yes! That sort of thing, yes," the Doctor said, "someone is radiating powerful waves of time energy." The Doctor immediately fell to pulling the TARDIS out of the vicinity of the time energy, grunting heavily as he tugged on a lever. Clara held her breath and the lights flickered in the TARDIS, until finally the Doctor let go of the lever with a satisfied "HA!" and the lights stabilized; as did everything else.
Clara walked like a sailor on dry ground to the Doctor. "That doesn't happen often, does it?" she asked, rubbing her sore waist.
"Not really," the Doctor said, barely paying her inquiry a glance as he punched in buttons on a minute keyboard and bit his tongue as his fingers flew across a line of red buttons. "That time energy, it isn't of any origin I know of. And I know a lot of origins. I use atron energy in the TARDIS to power it. A light bulb uses electricity, one form of energy, and I use atron. This isn't atron, though, yet it reads as having the ability to penetrate the Time Vortex."
"The Time Vortex?" Clara wondered.
"Yes, Clara," the Doctor said, being fast and hardworking and kind and teaching at the same time. "When I say I travel through time and space, I mean I'm traveling through a medium outside all other dimensions. Like . . . oh, say, say, say, a car traveling through a tunnel. That's me, the car, or . . . well, the driver of the car."
"So there's an outer source of stuff that can be used for time travel, but it isn't Time Lord? What is it, then?" Clara asked, puzzled.
"I'm not sure. Not at all," the Doctor said, his voice growing ever more excited. He glanced at the scanner, which showed the outside of the TARDIS. His fingers danced across the console as he twirled and skipped around the console. Clara, concerned, followed him at a distant but fast pace. "Right now, I'm pinpointing the origin of the radiation."
"I've got a feeling we're off on another adventure very, very soon," Clara said.
"Yes!" the Doctor yelled, "nearly now soon!"
"Doctor," Clara said in her speaking-to-a-young-child voice, "we just went on an adventure."
"And on to another, here we go!" The coordinates to the mysterious force-emitter went into the TARDIS, and she propelled herself smoothly through the Time Vortex to follow the wants of her lonely, wandering Doctor.
"Doctor," Clara said, approaching him when he finally stopped to lean against the console and wipe sweat off his big forehead. "I want to go home."
"What?" the Doctor was alert immediately. His voice became quiet. "Why? Don't you want to go on another adventure? We have plenty of time." He grinned and spread his arms out wide. "In fact, we have all the time we could ever want."
"Another time, maybe," Clara said slowly, wanting to drop the bomb slower on him, "but this time I wanna go home. I got Angie's homework to help with and Artie's got a coupla friends coming over, which means I need push and pull him into tidying up his room." A pause. "I've got a life to live too, Doctor. Not just this life. Goodness, I like this life," she said, leaning against the console next to him as he stared, distressed, at the ground. She leaned her head out, her hair curtaining her face, and continued. "This life is brilliant, truly. But it's not all-consuming. I've got other things, important things, that I got to do as well."
He was silent.
"Doctor. Say something. You're scaring me when you're not saying something," Clara said, hugging herself.
The Doctor's mind was foggy with thoughts of Rose, how she wanted to spend her entire life with the Doctor, and wise Martha, who walked away before something bad happened to her, and Donna, who was unjustly ripped away, and Amy and Rory, who'd wanted to give real life a fighting chance against the traveling life. All the other lives of his companions paralleled against each other until he clapped his hands, breaking the cloud of memories away. "Oh, Clara," the Doctor said, mopping his hand through his hair. "If that is what you want, I suppose I can't be dictatorial and controlling. I'll take you back to England."
Perhaps it was how so easily the Doctor had heeded her request; perhaps it was the sad manner in which he said it. Perhaps it was just in Clara's manner to notice small human things about the Doctor, like how he didn't want to withhold from her what she wanted, but also wanted her companionship. She knew the departure of his last companions did a rough number on him, and even now all he needed was a friend, a student, a companion, a laugh-mate, someone to keep him from going quite crazy or off the beaten path totally.
She smiled softly. She'd be that friend right now. "Okay, Doctor. One more adventure. Nearly very soon," she said.
He gave her that sweet, blissful, childish smile that made her grin. "Oh, Clara Oswald. You're too good to this old man," he said.
So that's the first chapter. Contrary to many people's opinions, I like Clara. She's a good companion, a mix of the best, with an excellent name and a timeless quality about her. I hope you liked it! (Please review? :))
God bless you!